


Thought

by MiniNephthys



Category: Angel Notes - Kinoko Nasu
Genre: F/M, Kink Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-09
Updated: 2011-11-09
Packaged: 2017-10-25 21:36:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/275052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>V/V can do something about another Aristotles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thought

There's an Aristotles headed for the city. It's on land, it doesn't move very quickly, and it's not particularly destructive - the area around it turns crystalline, but it doesn't go out of its way to attack anyone. If it's attacked, it completely and totally destroys whatever disturbed it.

Normally, something like that we'd just ignore. Most of the planet can't support life anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's the ashen remnants of the planet or the crystals that this creates. But if it gets through the World Tree, then it'll ruin the ability of this place to carry plants, and possibly kill anyone who gets too close.

We don't really need any plants in this year, so it's probably best for us to go somewhere else until it passes by and then return. Maybe it'll even stop the angels from falling from the leaves. I'll be out of a job, but it'll make my life less difficult for a while unless I can't find anything else that can be done by just a human. I don't want to live as a protected species.

Normally, I'd just pick up and leave with the rest of the people living on this tree. But, things haven't been normal here for a while.

"So, you can't leave, right?" I ask the Angel staring out the window at the passing people.

She nods. "I'll just make everything worse if I go and the leaves fall."

That's true. Crystal we can handle, but the amount of angels that would appear if the leaves fell at once would overwhelm all the sentient species currently existing in the world. So, even if she wanted to go, this angel that now possesses a 'morality' can't leave the city.

I sigh. "I guess I'm not going either."

"Huh? Won't you be in danger?" she asks, like she doesn't actually know. Maybe she doesn't.

"We don't know how bad it'll be if no one attacks it. Running away because of things we don't know isn't my kind of thing. Anyway, if I leave you alone, you'll set my house on fire, and I like this place."

The thought's a bit funny. Something like her shouldn't be able to do incredibly stupid things, but even though she sometimes knows more about the universe than any of us, she doesn't know basic things like cleaning. I can't trust her to take care of herself completely alone.

To my surprise, a determined look comes to her face. "I can do something. It has an objective, but it's supposed to have been here for a while, hasn't it? So it might have a will, too. I can try to talk to it if it comes within the city. I love this place the way it is, where people can be happy."

This ever-smiling angel is lighthearted about so many things, but when it comes to her love for humans, then she's always serious. She'll go up to an Aristotles forty meters tall and try to convince it to leave us alone on the chance that it might be able to understand her.

"You can do that. But if it looks like things are getting bad, then I'll just grab you and head to the other side of the city. Or shoot it. Or both."

She nods at that. I guess that means that I'm coming along on her foolish idea of helping. That's another thing I wouldn't have done a while ago.

The city is completely free of people besides me and the Angel when ORT is almost to the city limits. The Angel makes me a breakfast that I can actually eat, although as always, it isn't what I'd call tasty. Then she barely lets me grab the Black Barrel before she practically drags me outside and in the opposite direction of anyone with any sense.

I've seen creatures that big before, but always in planes. It's weird to see something that looks like a crystal spider-mollusk looming up taller than the buildings that already changing form. Still she drags me closer, and it keeps getting taller.

"How close do we have to get?" I ask, a little nervous about approaching a moving Aristotles. I have my gun in my hand, but she wants to try talking to it first, and I was never very good at convincing her of anything.

She thinks, still pulling me towards it. "I was going to go all the way up to it."

"And that doesn't sound like a really bad idea?"

"I guess it would be for you. It looks like its skin is way too sharp for you to touch, but for me it's easier to communicate with it if I can touch it, so..." The Angel lets go of me, and I haven't even caught my balance before she's running right up to ORT and pressing her hand against its shell.

I tense. There's no way for it not to kill her for that. Even a wild animal would attack, and she looks just like what it's been sent to this planet entirely to kill. For some reason there's no retribution right away, and it slows to a stop.

Despite my better judgment, I come close enough to tell that she's not speaking outwardly. That makes sense. It's probably easier for higher beings to just talk in planet-speak and not with this pale imitation humans use.

I won't go any further than this. Maybe she can tell it that she's not a foe because she's not a being from this planet, and she doesn't need to fear its destruction, but I can't and I do. Besides, she's not saying anything I can understand, so there isn't any reason to get closer. There's no way-

"Oh, come over here!"

-damn it.

She starts translating their thought-speech for me when I get close enough to hear, and introduces us to each other like this is a nice party. This is the Aristotles from the planet of Mercury, but it's fine if I call him ORT. It acquired a will from something it ate after landing here over eight thousand years ago, but was following its objective for lack of anything better to do. I almost expect her to tell me about its hobbies.

I search for something to say, because there are three people here. Or one person and two alien beings. Or one person, one alien being, and one concept...? "Hey."

She laughs at that before having a brief, silent conversation with ORT. Then the creature starts to move, and automatically I grab the Angel by the collar of her shirt and prepare to run. She pries me off and stops me from grabbing the Black Barrel.

That would probably have been a bad idea, I realize. All that the Aristotles does is unsheath one of its tentacles and stretch it out. It's about a foot in front of me, just sitting there. Whatever it's doing, it doesn't look like an attack.

I look over at her questioningly. She laughs again. "I told it about handshakes. That's the only part that wouldn't cut you."

Handshakes. Right.

I hesitate before reaching out to touch the appendage; like she said, it doesn't cut even though the rest of its body is gleaming sharp. There's no way I can get my hand around the whole thing, so I just put my palm against it and kind of rub up and down. This is really nothing like a handshake, which is probably because it has nothing like a hand. Feeling awkward, I pull my hand away.

I always did want to shake hands with someone important. I guess I can say I shook hand-and-tentacle with the strongest being from Mercury now. That kind of counts.

This is bizarre.  


* * *

  
I feel like I'm supervising a tea party here, with two incredibly powerful beings from different planets as the guests learning how to stick out their pinky fingers correctly. The Angel lapses in and out of speech I can understand, laughs at answers that don't make sense when she tries to explain them to me. Maybe you had to be there, in outer space.

Someone monitoring this must be wondering what's going on, with the Aristotles stopped at the outskirts of the city for so long and two idiots standing right by it. If they were stupid they'd send someone to ask us what we think we're doing, but nobody's crazy enough to come near something that dangerous except for the Angel and me. I'll mark this as one of my greatest accomplishments, saying to anyone who asks, "Yeah, I killed an Aristotles and I had a pretty good chat with another one. It was a little awkward, though."

Most of my job is just waiting to make sure that she doesn't do anything even more out of her mind. I resist the temptation to doze off so that I can be alert when she turns to me and asks, "Are we mates?"

I raise an eyebrow at that. "Mates?"

"Boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife, like that," she explains. "ORT wants to know."

"Yeah, I guess we are." It's a weird way of being asked out, but I'll take it.

She beams at hearing that - she doesn't get embarrassed very easily - and turns back to the crystal spider-thing to communicate this new piece of information. Another silent conversation follows, which ends with her turning back to me and swiftly bringing me into a hug.

Her face is close to mine. I figure that nothing makes sense anymore, and I might as well close the gap and kiss her even if we're in front of an enormous tentacled alien. So I do.

She squeaks a little at that before kissing me back; she isn't really good at it, which I expected, but it's not a hard thing to pick up. Her wings flutter as she holds me close, nearly brushing against the shell of our audience. I am completely past caring that this thing is alive and could kill us, because the Angel is kissing me.

...well, not completely past caring. I still know that the Black Barrel is in reach, but it doesn't look like I'll need it.

She pulls away eventually to beam at me, and no other person could smile so brightly. "I'm really happy."

"I have to say, this is not exactly what I expected to happen when I heard about the Aristotles," I answer, because it's hard for me to say 'I'm really happy too'. She looks like she gets what I mean anyway, and kisses me again.


End file.
